Fifth ECB Central Banking Conference proceedings published: “The euro at ten – lessons and challenges”
08 February 2010
Following the conference held in November 2008, the ECB is publishing a report with papers, commentaries and speeches analysing the recent global crisis and the first decade of the euro. Ben Bernanke highlighted the useful cooperation among the Fed and the ECB to tackle the financial crisis.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has published the proceedings of the Fifth ECB Central Banking Conference, “The euro at ten – lessons and challenges”, held between 13 and 14 November 2008. It contains a collection of papers, commentaries and speeches concerning the first decade of the euro and the recent global financial crisis.
The second group of contributions deals with the recent global financial crisis. Anil Kashyap, Raghuram Rajan and Jeremy Stein discuss the roots of the crisis and put forward a proposal for regulatory reform which aims to prevent crises from escalating in the future. A panel chaired by Lucrezia Reichlin, comprising Ben Bernanke, Stanley Fischer, Su Ning, Guillermo Ortiz and Jean-Claude Trichet, discusses international interdependency in the conduct of monetary policy, especially during the recent crisis.
The tenth anniversary of the euro and the recent crisis are intertwined in the speeches delivered at the conference by members of the ECB’s Executive Board. The opening address by Lucas Papademos deals with certain early lessons drawn from the ongoing financial crisis. For example, the role of excessive credit growth and high leverage in identifying systemic risks; the desirability and feasibility of a policy of “leaning against the wind” of financial market excesses; and the importance of enhanced cooperation between central banks and supervisors in order to effectively safeguard financial stability. The keynote address by Jean-Claude Trichet focuses on a number of factors behind the financial market crisis, notably short-termism, lack of transparency in certain securities markets and excessive pro-cyclicality in the financial system, and suggests actions to significantly improve the resilience of the financial system.
Finally, the closing address by Jürgen Stark emphasises the importance of the ECB’s robust institutional framework, including its independence from political influence and its monetary policy strategy for successfully achieving its mandate of maintaining price stability; it also reviews some of the forthcoming challenges, including a resolute implementation of necessary structural reforms to enhance the adjustment capacity of the euro area economy and the necessity of nominal and real convergence for a smooth functioning of an enlarged euro area. The text of each address is included in this volume.
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